4Supplychain Consulting was brought in to set up demand planning, supply planning and inventory management and to integrate it all in a custom SAP system.

The project was not without its challenges. The deadlines were short and multiple different systems had to be aligned. Implementation began in August. The importer had already entered the foreign markets and the Holiday season – the industry’s peak months – was approaching. Sales were booming, as could be expected in the important, extremely busy season. However, the risk of administrative delays soon became all too real. As for the system, creating carbon copies of the Dutch system was not an option. Issues such as inventory valuation, heterogeneous forecasts and new customer profiles, with corresponding variations, were but a few of the challenges. As a result, the parent company’s SAP system had to be adapted to each country’s specific situation.

A challenging task for Joep Willems, consultant at 4Supplychain Consulting. He had already worked with ERP systems and planning in the past, and managed to set up this client’s new SAP system with a very short turnaround. The result is a Microsoft Power BI-based inventory valuation system and a customer system that could be implemented in it.

‘I always try to apply automation to collect more reliable data and speed up data analysis,’ he says. ‘That is why I also wrote a separate script to speed up data entry into the ERP system and make it more accurate. The challenging part of these assignments is quickly figuring out the underlying variables in the systems, how these variables can conflict with one another, and how you can fix it. The client wanted a fast, accurate, error-free system that would let them effectively monitor and adjust their international expansion, and I thoroughly enjoyed building it.’

The project was completed within the planned six months. Want to know more about interim supply chain management? We’d love to tell you more.